Smugglers

Information
Series 1: 3x60 | SD | 2011

FormatSD

Production CompanyWild Pictures

Year of Production2011

Primary BroadcasterITV

Europe’s prime destination for smuggled cigarettes and the leading consumers of cocaine. ‘Smugglers’ shows the extraordinary lengths crime gangs will go to beat border controls. Officers candidly acknowledge that any success is often short-lived; what they stop is the tip of the iceberg.
At ports like Dover the numbers are stacked in the ‘Smugglers’ favour. 7,000 lorries and 10,000 cars pass through every day, hidden amongst the traffic is millions of pounds of smuggled goods.

The film follows the case of a 62 year old retired taxi driver from Birmingham caught with 5 kilos of cocaine cleverly concealed behind the engine of his car. The £200,000 worth of cocaine he was smuggling is a small fraction of the two and half tonnes of cocaine seized annually at UK Borders. But it is estimated that a further 25-27 and a half tonnes of cocaine, gets into the UK undetected every year.

Episode 2

The cameras follow UK Border agency officers as they search the vehicle of a man who has been stopped in France on suspicion of smuggling. The man is travelling with his wife, and they look like an ordinary couple returning from a day trip. An inspection of their car reveals two kilos of what is at first suspected to be amphetamine, but later turns out to be half a million pounds of high purity cocaine.

Episode 1

The big consignments of drugs arrive on UK’s shores in container ships, fishing vessels and yachts. The UK Border Agency has five Cutters which patrol the sea lanes to stop and search vessels they suspect may be carrying illegal cargo. The programme follows a Cutter Crew as they stop a huge container ship off the South East Coast, after receiving intelligence that it is carrying a large consignment of drugs.